tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20456728406035770232017-12-08T18:36:24.185+05:30PULARUMVARE CINEMAO.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.comBlogger571125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-68064662357372186042015-12-25T13:05:00.000+05:302015-12-25T13:05:06.902+05:30Desaparadiso (2015)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Desaparadiso (2015)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qDyD0aDc9gY/Vnzw-ZbgaPI/AAAAAAAACiE/lJxSZgd4X20/s1600/W02K1ZR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-qDyD0aDc9gY/Vnzw-ZbgaPI/AAAAAAAACiE/lJxSZgd4X20/s320/W02K1ZR.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="1hs85-0-0"><span data-offset-key="1hs85-0-0"><span data-text="true">Director: Khavn</span></span></div><div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="42b2d-0-0"><span data-offset-key="42b2d-0-0"><span data-text="true">Country: Philippines</span></span></div><div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="bg335-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bg335-0-0"><span data-text="true">1h 15min</span></span></div><div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="bg335-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bg335-0-0"><span data-text="true">&nbsp;</span></span></div><div class="_209g _2vxa" data-block="true" data-offset-key="bg335-0-0"><span data-offset-key="bg335-0-0"><span data-text="true">&nbsp;</span></span>One day, they just disappeared. Just like that. One didn’t go to work, one didn’t go to his appointment, didn’t meet his date. The dishes served were left to rot, and the bed remained immaculate; the sheets unruffled and unslept in. One cannot say if they are alive or dead. And for this reason, there is no funeral, no nine-day wake, no mass, no burning of candles, or recitation of litanies for the dead. Because they are not dead (or maybe there are), and who is to know what has become of them?<br />What can a family do if someone disappears in a dictatorship? You can’t go to the police for help or information. Many families were affected in this way by the cruelty of the Marcos dictatorship (1972-1986). The film shows one of them as an example of paradise lost.</div></div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-61790857035020805862015-05-03T16:52:00.001+05:302015-05-03T16:52:45.239+05:30 N: The Madness of Reason (2014) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">&nbsp;N: The Madness of Reason (2014)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hZspKxURVf4/VUYEcVD1vCI/AAAAAAAACcI/QXc0h5rGeZo/s1600/MV5BMTg1Njk0NjIyMF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMDUxMTI1MTE%40._V1_SY317_CR4%2C0%2C214%2C317_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hZspKxURVf4/VUYEcVD1vCI/AAAAAAAACcI/QXc0h5rGeZo/s1600/MV5BMTg1Njk0NjIyMF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMDUxMTI1MTE%40._V1_SY317_CR4%2C0%2C214%2C317_AL_.jpg" /></a></div>Director: Peter Krüger<br />Country: Netherlands <br />Runtime :102min<br /><br />In the mid-20th century, Raymond Borremans left his native France for Africa, where he devoted his life to writing the continent’s first encyclopedia. He had reached the letter N when he died in 1988; his unfulfilled ghost haunts West Africa today. You might have guessed that this is not a straightforward documentary. Combining the realities of present-day Africa with the myths of the past and fictional characters, N skilfully weaves a deep reflection on the legacy of colonialism. Working with high-profile collaborators such as Nigerian writer Ben Okri (script) and French actor Michael Lonsdale (narration), Peter Krüger succeeds in creating one of the year’s most inspired visual worlds. A superb reverie, full of deep, complex meaning.</div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-40104476419937873682015-05-03T14:07:00.001+05:302015-05-03T14:07:13.563+05:30From What Is Before (2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">From What Is Before (2014)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VPeTuFSQVd8/VUXd8GUQy5I/AAAAAAAACb4/dptmz5v-q6Q/s1600/fromwhat.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-VPeTuFSQVd8/VUXd8GUQy5I/AAAAAAAACb4/dptmz5v-q6Q/s1600/fromwhat.jpg" height="179" width="320" /></a></div>Director: Lav Diaz <br />Country: Philippines <br />Runtime:338 min<br /><br /> The Philippines, 1972. Mysterious things are happening in a remote barrio. Wails are heard from the forest, cows are hacked to death, a man is found bleeding to death at the crossroad and houses are burned. Ferdinand E. Marcos announces Proclamation No. 1081 putting the entire country under Martial Law. <br /><br /></div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-51983154996660092912015-01-20T10:26:00.001+05:302015-01-20T10:26:14.559+05:30Greenery Will Bloom Again (2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Greenery Will Bloom Again (2014)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cXJ5JMxgFj0/VL3fpYd3UyI/AAAAAAAACZg/4bhHZ1Ctbok/s1600/OQ1MI1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cXJ5JMxgFj0/VL3fpYd3UyI/AAAAAAAACZg/4bhHZ1Ctbok/s1600/OQ1MI1.jpg" height="320" width="223" /></a></div>Director: Ermanno Olmi <br />Country: Italy<br />Runtime: 80 min<br /><br /><br /><br />The winter of 1917, the North-East front, the final clashes of the Great War. An Italian stronghold situated at 1800 metres above sea level, on the Asiago plateau, described in the novels of Mario Rigoni Stern. It’s snowing everywhere; the Austrian trenches are so close that you can hear the enemy soldiers breathing.<br /><br />A hundred years since the outbreak of World War I, maestro Ermanno Olmi describes with <i>Torneranno i prati</i> his vision of a conflict that cost the lives of 16 million human beings, just as it was brought back to him by the memory of his father, called to arms at 19 years of age, to find himself within the bloodbath of Carso and Piave. A drama that scarred his youth and the rest of his life, just like millions of others.</div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-34121408202456388032015-01-19T17:00:00.000+05:302015-01-19T17:00:52.543+05:30The Distance (2014) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The Distance (2014) <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DJbSXUDeigM/VLzqXYQ4cDI/AAAAAAAACZQ/xWanqxcGNpE/s1600/WYIe4e.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-DJbSXUDeigM/VLzqXYQ4cDI/AAAAAAAACZQ/xWanqxcGNpE/s1600/WYIe4e.jpg" height="320" width="223" /></a></div>Director: Sergio Caballero <br />Country: Spain<br />Runtime: 80 min<br /><br /><br />A heist-movie of such exquisitely bizarre loopiness to make Inception look like Ocean's Eleven, Sergio Caballero's The Distance (La distancia) is a likeably giggle-inducing dollop of deadpan surrealist whimsy. Observing a trio of telepathic Russian dwarves tasked with robbing an abandoned Siberian power-station, Caballero's follow-up to 2010's even more deliciously outre Finisterrae confirms the Catalan's status as a puckish jester in the court of current European art-cinema. Adventurous audiences enduring the longueurs and waywardness of his gloriously uncompromised vision are rewarded with a hilariously abrupt finale that should delight many but leave others baffled and bemused. Festivals with late-night slots to fill will clamor for this cultish item, which might even find small distribution niches in eccentricity-embracing territories such as Japan and France.</div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-40590448926577035812015-01-14T18:03:00.000+05:302015-01-14T18:03:01.041+05:30What Now? Remind Me (2013) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">What Now? Remind Me (2013)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kjlKv2k3-Eo/VLZhkWkX05I/AAAAAAAACY4/WFqHtGX8RqQ/s1600/tumblr_ng0zqfzdBm1taituao1_1280.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kjlKv2k3-Eo/VLZhkWkX05I/AAAAAAAACY4/WFqHtGX8RqQ/s1600/tumblr_ng0zqfzdBm1taituao1_1280.jpg" height="320" width="216" /></a></div>Director: Joaquim Pinto<br />Country: Portugal <br />Runtime: 164 min<br /><br /><br /><br />Joaquim Pinto has been an instrumental figure in Portuguese cinema for over 30 years, whether directing his own films, as producer or sound designer for renowned filmmakers such as Raul Ruiz, Manoel de Oliveira and Joao Cesar Monteiro.<br /><br />In his newest film, What Now? Remind Me, <b>winner of the Jury Prize at the Locarno Film Festival</b>, Pinto, who has been living with HIV for more than two decades, looks back at his life in cinema, at his friendships and loves, and at the mysteries of art and nature -- while undergoing an experimental drug treatment.<br /><br />Moving freely between past and present, fact and fantasia, What Now? Remind Me is a beautiful portrait of a man looking beyond his own mortality at the world around us. </div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-15719829253155958982015-01-13T15:19:00.001+05:302015-01-13T15:19:32.711+05:30Leviathan (2014) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Leviathan (2014)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CKRXnvbUNLw/VLTp2XQIyPI/AAAAAAAACYo/-8ainCHtkjg/s1600/MV5BMjAwMTY3MTU0Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzE0ODAwMzE%40._V1_SX214_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-CKRXnvbUNLw/VLTp2XQIyPI/AAAAAAAACYo/-8ainCHtkjg/s1600/MV5BMjAwMTY3MTU0Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNzE0ODAwMzE%40._V1_SX214_AL_.jpg" /></a></div>Director: Andrey Zvyagintsev<br />Country: Russia <br />Runtime: 140 min<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The latest drama from Andrey Zvyagintsev, the acclaimed director of The Return (Venice Film Festival Golden Lion winner and Golden Globe nominee). Kolya (Alexeï Serebriakov) lives in a small fishing town near the stunning Barents Sea in Northern Russia. He owns an auto-repair shop that stands right next to the house where he lives with his young wife Lilya (Elena Liadova) and his son Roma (Sergueï Pokhodaev) from a previous marriage. </div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-21592176786063237992015-01-11T11:29:00.000+05:302015-01-11T11:29:24.259+05:30Opium (2013)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Opium (2013)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A_mhMuRShS8/VLIPjHqybWI/AAAAAAAACYU/VgdnMVWCYUw/s1600/aWBiKS.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-A_mhMuRShS8/VLIPjHqybWI/AAAAAAAACYU/VgdnMVWCYUw/s1600/aWBiKS.jpg" height="320" width="241" /></a></div>Director: Arielle Dombasle<br />Country: France<br />Runtime: 77 min<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> <div class="synopsis">The frustrated loves of Jean Cocteau and Raymond Radiguet at the beginning of the 1920s. The death of Radiguet that sank Cocteau into opium. A story under the influence of drugs. A narrative in the spirit of Cocteau. And all this in a musical.</div></div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-82455908182831114062015-01-05T15:31:00.001+05:302015-01-05T15:31:19.980+05:30Home from Home: Chronicle of a Vision (2013)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Home from Home: Chronicle of a Vision (2013)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r7_XJWPijz8/VKpgdX0joZI/AAAAAAAACX0/zXTLzza4Y7o/s1600/MV5BMTU3MjgwMzI3Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwODcxMDg0MzE%40._V1_SX214_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-r7_XJWPijz8/VKpgdX0joZI/AAAAAAAACX0/zXTLzza4Y7o/s1600/MV5BMTU3MjgwMzI3Nl5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwODcxMDg0MzE%40._V1_SX214_AL_.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>Director: Edgar Reitz <br />Country: Germany<br />Runtime: 225 min<br /><br />Edgar Reitz's Home From Home: Chronicle Of A Vision is his latest exploration of the fictional village of Schabbach, in the west German region of Hunsrück, close to the Luxembourg border. Shot as a feature-length film, he delves further back in time than the previous chronicles, to focus on the family of a smithy in the mid-19th century. I should admit at this point that I have not seen the previous outings by Reitz, although this engrossing and well-realised instalment - which is perfectly self-contained - has encouraged me to rectify that as soon as I have 50 or so more hours to spare.<br /> Key to the action is the family's second son Jakob (Jan Dieter Schneider) a voracious book reader and dreamer, much to the chagrin of his father, who believes in more earthly pursuits. Nevertheless, Jakob skives off work in the blacksmith's as often as he dares to self-teach himself the languages he believes are necessary - Portugese and native South American among others - to put into action his long-term desire to escape to Brazil. He is not alone, as Reitz offers a backdrop of small town decline, with the Prussian autocracy and poverty leading many to pack up and head out, despite the dangers that may lie ahead and in the full knowledge that there will be no turning back.<br />&nbsp;It's situation which resonates with the illegal migratory patterns of the modern era and is no doubt intended to remind European audiences, who are generally seeing an anti-migratory rise of the political right, of what it means to leave everything and go in search of a new life and better circumstances.<br /><br />Reitz and co-writer Gert Heidenreich define home as the bosom of family, as an emotional shelter or storm, rather than simply the roof over Jakob's head. His elder sister Lena (Melanie Fouche) represents how it is possible to be a million emotional miles away from your clan even when you live within striking distance, as she has become estranged through marriage to a Catholic (Martin Schleimer). Her desire to reconnect with her family offers an opposing force to Jakob's objective of disengaginge with his old life in favour of a brave New World. He is smart and articulate but also a naif, as evidenced by his flowery voice-over, but his passions, however misguided, make him a compelling presence.<br /> The lengthy runtime allows Reitz and Heidenreich to spend time with members of Jakob's extended family, including local lassies Jettchen (Antonia Bill) and Florinchen (Philine Lembeck), although there is sometimes a tendency to gloss over the more social realist aspects of the plot - such as the deep bite of the feudal system - in favour of romanticism. There are also signs of budget limitations, particularly in two scenes where a doll has all-too-obviously been substituted for a baby.<br /> Reitz and cinematographer Gernot Roll, shoot in black and white, with Roll's camera at its most free - like Jakob - in the rolling fields around Schabbach. The decision to occasionally pick out items - a horse's shoe, a wall - in colour is, presumably, intended to suggest the echo of the modern found in the past, but it is more of a distraction than a useful tool, providing little more than a guessing game as to what will be highlighted next. The stunt casting of Werner Herzog in a cameo role - although he is clearly enjoying himself - also feels like a flourish too far in a film which is at its best when it is at its most traditional.</div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-33641197276358173842014-12-26T12:35:00.000+05:302014-12-26T12:35:02.170+05:30 Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy (2013) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">&nbsp;Mary Is Happy, Mary Is Happy (2013)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M5Bo0gwI68Q/VJ0H2wueX4I/AAAAAAAACXg/kyTL3uuxIK4/s1600/9TZnxJe.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-M5Bo0gwI68Q/VJ0H2wueX4I/AAAAAAAACXg/kyTL3uuxIK4/s1600/9TZnxJe.jpg" height="320" width="227" /></a></div>Director: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit <br />Country: Thailand<br />Runtime: 127 min&nbsp;<br /><br />Portraying a character struggling to make sense of her life as it threatens to spin out of control, Nawapol’s brilliant second film creates an inventive narrative of an uncontrollable life through a brilliantly modern artistic concept: to adapt a Twitter stream into a fictional film. <br /><br />The director used 410 real Tweets from an anonymous girl as a springboard to create a fantasy world of a contemporary Asian teenager, and the results are funny and strange, a conflation of modern Thai teenage life, Wes Anderson-esque humour, and the possibilities for escape offered by the digital world.</div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-66481520027911903112014-10-25T12:15:00.001+05:302014-10-25T12:15:52.630+05:30To Kill a Man (2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">To Kill a Man (2014)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rNqUFoFHBfs/VEtGXg1Xa3I/AAAAAAAACWo/9-eFWTgO7rg/s1600/sA3UzD.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rNqUFoFHBfs/VEtGXg1Xa3I/AAAAAAAACWo/9-eFWTgO7rg/s1600/sA3UzD.jpg" height="320" width="224" /></a></div>Director: Alejandro Fernández Almendras <br />Country: Chile <br />Runtime:82min<br /><br />Jorge is a tranquil, middle-class family man whose neighborhood has become overrun by a fringe class of street thugs. His comparatively fortunate existence makes him the target of their intimidation one night, and a hulking outlaw robs him of his insulin needle. Jorge’s teenage son boldly tries to stand up for his father, which only serves to unleash the bully’s terrorizing reign of threats upon the family. Jorge and his wife, Martha, seek protection from the legal system but are subjected to civic drones and bureaucratic procedure, so they remain vulnerable. As Jorge’s family suffers from fear and humiliating anguish, the situation paints him as a deficient patriarch—until he’s cornered into defending what’s his.<br /><br />Lines of class and masculinity ignite friction in this rugged thriller, adeptly shot with a discerning eye. Director Alejandro Fernández Almendras elevates raw grit to a new level with a tone that is both elemental and prophetic. Rife with unnerving tension, <i>To Kill a Man</i> is ultimately a surprising exploration of the heavy burden of what it takes to do what the title suggests.</div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-39741461876420185032014-10-22T15:11:00.000+05:302014-10-22T15:11:12.623+05:30Bird People (2014) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Bird People (2014)&nbsp; <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MTP932COnfA/VEd2RHLmPHI/AAAAAAAACWY/VAUSBH0HZyc/s1600/MV5BMjMxMjEzNzE1Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMjk3ODg0MjE%40._V1_SX214_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MTP932COnfA/VEd2RHLmPHI/AAAAAAAACWY/VAUSBH0HZyc/s1600/MV5BMjMxMjEzNzE1Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMjk3ODg0MjE%40._V1_SX214_AL_.jpg" /></a></div>Director: Pascale Ferran<br />Country: France <br />Runtime:127min<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><span><span class="r-rhscol-20 kno-desc-sh">In an airport hotel on the outskirts of Paris, a Silicon Valley engineer bruptly chucks his job, breaks things off with his wife, and holes up in his room. As fate draws him and a young French maid together, an audacious second-act surprise suddenly transforms César Award-winning director Pascale Fe<span class="_dgc">rran's dark-tinged fairy-tale into something altogether richer, more beguiling, and utterly astonishing.</span></span></span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-MTP932COnfA/VEd2RHLmPHI/AAAAAAAACWY/VAUSBH0HZyc/s1600/MV5BMjMxMjEzNzE1Ml5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMjk3ODg0MjE%40._V1_SX214_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><br /></div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-59582104269294793042014-10-15T11:31:00.001+05:302014-10-15T11:31:21.650+05:30 The 50 Year Argument (2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The 50 Year Argument (2014)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-03V46RXWU-I/VD4M9BDm8bI/AAAAAAAACV8/pAupLGBTzo0/s1600/50YearArgumentPoster1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-03V46RXWU-I/VD4M9BDm8bI/AAAAAAAACV8/pAupLGBTzo0/s1600/50YearArgumentPoster1.jpg" height="320" width="216" /></a></div>Directors: Martin Scorsese, David Tedeschi<br />Country: USA<br />Runtime: &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; 1h 37mn<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The 50 Year Argument is Martin Scorsese's latest film, co-directed with his longtime documentary collaborator David Tedeschi. It charts literary, political and cultural history as per the New York Review of Books, America's leading journal of ideas since 1963. The film weaves rare archive material, interviews and writing by icons such as James Baldwin and Gore Vidal into original verite footage, filmed in the Review's Greenwich Village offices with longtime editor Robert Silvers.</div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-2197566128021345382014-10-13T14:42:00.003+05:302014-10-13T14:42:25.590+05:30Coming Home (2014) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Coming Home (2014)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k5hwQ0vYqPI/VDuWH0yS83I/AAAAAAAACVs/Wa-coVfqX_o/s1600/MV5BOTI1NzQzOTcyOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNDA0MDA4MTE%40._V1_SY317_CR12%2C0%2C214%2C317_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-k5hwQ0vYqPI/VDuWH0yS83I/AAAAAAAACVs/Wa-coVfqX_o/s1600/MV5BOTI1NzQzOTcyOV5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwNDA0MDA4MTE%40._V1_SY317_CR12%2C0%2C214%2C317_AL_.jpg" /></a></div>Director: Yimou Zhang<br />Country: China<br />Runtime:109min<br /><br /><div id="article-body-blocks"> The ghosts of China's cultural revolution shake their chains and rattle their ivories in Coming Home, a sweet yet suspect romantic drama from director Zhang Yimou, which played out of competition at the Cannes film festival. The first time Lu Yanshi (Chen Daoming) comes haunting, he's a bedraggled, desperate fugitive; the second time, he's careworn and rehabilitated. On each occasion, his wife finds herself unable to open the door and let him inside.<br />Zhang was the leading light of China's "fifth generation" of film-makers, revered for his pungent epics To Live and Raise the Red Lantern, and subsequently brought into the fold to direct the opening and closing ceremonies at the Beijing Olympics. His new film looks at the cultural revolution more in sorrow than anger, installing the spouses' relationship as a metaphor for the country's stumbling attempt to make peace with its past.<br />When Chen's dissident professor is released from jail, amnesiac Feng Wanyu (Gong Li) fails to recognise him. It is as if she is practising her own form of state censorship, or perhaps the enormity of his presence makes her unable to see him. Years before, the couples' indoctrinated daughter (Zhang Huiwen) had cut her father's face from all the photos in the family album, which means that there is no visual reminder; no proof that the man is who he claims to be. His wife looks right through him, standing forlornly at the station awaiting her husband's return.<br />Zhang adapts the tale from a novel by Geling Yan, who also provided the blueprint for his previous picture, The Flowers of War. He handles it sensitively, elegantly, and coaxes some affecting performances from Chen and Gong (although the latter does rather overdo the nervous head-bobbing). But the film is also sentimental and faintly evasive, replete with a plaintive piano score that all but twists our arms behind our backs. Zhang dabs on salve and comforts the afflicted. He lets this intimate, bittersweet reconciliation implicitly stand for the nation at large.<br />Eventually, Yanshi learns that he must approach his wife with caution, as though he's feeding birds in the garden. He pretends to be a kindly neighbour come to read her husband's letters, or a piano tuner making house-calls. The man means well; the woman's starting to thaw. But he should really have dismantled that annoying piano. It won't stop tinkling and it takes up too much space.<br /> </div></div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-43726064486698501592014-10-12T13:26:00.000+05:302014-10-12T13:26:46.028+05:30The Way He Looks (2014)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The Way He Looks (2014)<br />&nbsp;<span class="userContent">Director: Daniel Ribeiro<br /> Country: Brazil <br /> Runtime:95min</span><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MW3tC_jiDz4/VDozDz4-4xI/AAAAAAAACVY/POITDBw7i58/s1600/MV5BMTQ5NjYxODk2NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTgyNTU4MjE%40._V1_SY317_CR0%2C0%2C214%2C317_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MW3tC_jiDz4/VDozDz4-4xI/AAAAAAAACVY/POITDBw7i58/s1600/MV5BMTQ5NjYxODk2NF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTgyNTU4MjE%40._V1_SY317_CR0%2C0%2C214%2C317_AL_.jpg" /></a></div><span class="userContent">Leonardo is a blind teenager feeling overprotected by all of those around him. Struggling towards a more independent life, he has to overcome the vulnerabilit<span class="text_exposed_show">y orbiting his condition.<br /> At home, his mother won't let him do things by himself, or even be alone. At school, his best friend, Giovana, leaves no room for him to stand up for himself before all the bullying. Besides, he's never been kissed and is pretty confident that no one would consider dating the blind kid.<br /> Seeing no way out, Leonardo considers going on an exchange program, hoping he could start fresh. Things take an unexpected turn when Gabriel, a new student in town, arrives at school, becoming friends with him and Giovana. Leonardo gravitates towards Gabriel, excited to be friends with someone who acts differently from everyone else.<br /> Meanwhile, Giovana has to balance her infatuation with the new kid and the jealousy she feels for sharing her old pal. Glimpsing a possible way to independence in this unfamiliar and yet comforting new friendship, Leonardo changes the way he looks at himself and experiences the blossoming of new and intense feelings towards Gabriel.</span></span></div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-38220131177849966662014-10-11T10:58:00.000+05:302014-10-11T10:58:04.115+05:30Constructors (2013) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Constructors (2013)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3HcsalVxpJQ/VDi-tEZV-FI/AAAAAAAACVI/j7dhLNv68NM/s1600/Constructors%2B(3).JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-3HcsalVxpJQ/VDi-tEZV-FI/AAAAAAAACVI/j7dhLNv68NM/s1600/Constructors%2B(3).JPG" height="180" width="320" /></a></div>Director: Adilkhan Yerzhanov<br />Country: Kazakhstan <br />Runtime:67min<br /><br />This hour-long film, shot on a shoestring budget, tells a seemingly simple story: three siblings (two teenage brothers and a younger sister) are evicted from their apartment after their mother suffered a stroke. Their last hopes rest on a plot of land outside of the city, to which they have a legitimate claim. Officials arrive in a jeep to tell them that, unless they build a foundation within the next two weeks, the land will be confiscated. With borrowed instruments and stolen material the brothers manage to complete the foundation when another law is issued, requiring a finished house, at least a temporary one, in order to keep the plot. Aliya, the little girl, gets sick and is taken to a hospital; Rauf, the older brother, is beaten up for stealing cement and bricks and is later arrested. The last man standing is Yerbolat, who is willing to finish the roof so that the state will have to provide him with an apartment in exchange for the confiscated land.<br />The synopsis implies an existential social drama with tragic undertones, but this is not the film’s focus. The siblings’ sad prehistory only becomes clear from three brief verbal attacks that Yerbolat launches against his older brother. First, he accuses him of having mortgaged their apartment and having caused their mother’s stroke. Then, each time when a new loss occurs, Yerbolat adds another accusation – the younger sister’s illness, the theft of construction materials. And yet, when Rauf is about to be arrested, the brothers quietly look at each other for a long time, and their facial expression slowly turns to a shy, warm smile. At this point, Rauf gives Yerbolat final instructions, demonstrating that he will never give up and implying that neither will his younger brother.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br />Simple the story may be, but what matters more than the social framework and even psychological finesse&nbsp; is the cinematic execution. The plot’s unpredictability, combined with a high degree of visual and acoustic control and the relaxed seriousness displayed by the performers, gives The Constructors a rare freshness appreciated by festival audiences around the world. Thirty-something Adilkhan Yerzhanov is an auteur in the truest sense of the word; he wrote the screenplay, directed, and was in charge of cinematography and editing. The film is shot in rich black-and-white. Of particular significance is the picture’s lighting structure during the many night scenes, in which sharp rays from artificial sources aggressively intrude the siblings’ joint space that they are trying to secure and from which they are to be evicted. Darkness offers at least some protection, whereas daylight brutally exposes the incompleteness of their project and their own uprooted state. The film’s inner rhythm is intriguing: its shifts from night to day and back, from dialogue to silence, from raw diegetic sound to haunting music. Some scenes resemble absurd theater, especially when the state officials show up, or when a buffoonish salesman—“Timur Tilman” (his real name)—in a weird quasi-Western outfit advertizes his company’s newest lamps. Other scenes are touching precisely because of the overall laconic tone, conveying the warmth and care that the three siblings feel for each other and the selflessness that they display. Thus, when Rauf and Yerbolat go out on a mission to steal bricks, they put two plastic bottles on sticks and tell their scared little sister that these improvised dolls represent them. When the brothers are about to be detected by guarding neighbors and their dog, Rauf decides to leave his hiding place and confront them, saving his younger brother who had just chastised him in the most brutal manner. Rauf seems to do everything he can to earn, or regain, Yerbolat’s respect and justify his leadership status as the oldest. <br />While the preposterousness and cruelty of the bureaucratic state and its representatives is obvious, the more intriguing issue is what gives these three forlorn youngsters the strength to go on. One clue might come from the opening—a brief, never explained sequence of historical footage to which little Aliya tells the history of Kazakhstan in two minutes, beginning with the great nomadic nations, through the Mongol occupation, the Soviet period, ending with national independence—and in the kitchen where the three siblings sit in silence, under a shaky lamp reflecting their current unstable circumstances. But this sequence is never commented on or referred to later. Except for Yerbolat’s verbal assaults against his brother, the three usually react to each new stage of the drama with complete, samurai-like silence. Nobody complains, nobody whines. There is a quiet inner drive in them that, if we take the opening sequence literally, originates from their ancestors. Without ever preaching, the young title characters display a stoicism that is vital for their survival and part of their identity, conveyed as an unconditional willingness to ignore or resist adversity and to stick together, regardless of state harassment or occasional filial rivalry. <br /><br />Despite the young characters’ coolness, Kazakhstan comes across as profoundly inhospitable: a huge country that has neither space, nor concern, for its young. Yet the three, despite tensions and a chain of bad luck aggravated by arbitrary, punitive legislation, quietly continue to build their future. In addition to the historical and mythical allusion in the opening scene, there is a spatial element suggesting the origin of their proud endurance. The siblings create the foundation of their home against the backdrop of a long line of houses covering the horizon. However, when the camera shows the opposite side, the constructors’ background is formed by an array of mighty mountains. At the end, when Yerbolat remains all by himself, there can be no doubt that he will continue to build, because that’s who he is<br />Peter Rollberg<br />The George Washington University</div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-6037207002594738192014-10-06T13:10:00.002+05:302014-10-06T13:10:37.525+05:30Human Capital (2013) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Human Capital (2013)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uvGYphUXKUM/VDJGzDqbopI/AAAAAAAACU4/THsg8fWFuDI/s1600/MV5BNzMyMDU1ODI0N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTAxOTc0MTE%40._V1_SY317_CR122%2C0%2C214%2C317_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-uvGYphUXKUM/VDJGzDqbopI/AAAAAAAACU4/THsg8fWFuDI/s1600/MV5BNzMyMDU1ODI0N15BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTAxOTc0MTE%40._V1_SY317_CR122%2C0%2C214%2C317_AL_.jpg" /></a></div>Director: Paolo Virzì<br />Country: Italy<br />Runtime:111min<br /><br />Valeria Bruni Tedeschi, who won Best Actress in a Narrative Feature Film at the Tribeca Film Festival as Carla and Valeria Golino as Roberta in Paolo Virzì's Human Capital (Il Capitale Umano) give brilliant performances entangled in a web of what is perhaps the most revolting selection of male characters in a film I have seen at least this year. Fabrizio Gifuni plays Giovanni and Fabrizio Bentivoglio is Dino. The respective husbands are corrupt each in their own way. The former a hedge fund finance power player, the latter a middle-class real estate agent who would like to be like the other, corruption and all.<br /><br />On an evening right before Christmas in Northern Italy, a waiter at a school function is run over on his bicycle riding home in the snow. This hit and run tragedy links a number of people from different social backgrounds as Virzì's delicate and bewildering tale jumps back and forth from a summer past to the fateful winter night.<br />Copy picture<br /><br />Two families are tied together by an accident and their children. Serena (Matilde Gioli) and Massimiliano (Guglielmo Pinelli) have very little in common outside of school, and their relationship crumbles. Carla, Massimiliano's mother, is a woman who has great financial privileges and no emotional stability. Her life of manicures, massages and antiques shopping makes her feel increasingly worthless. This is reinforced by her husband, Giovanni, who communicates nothing of importance to her.<br /><br />In an attempt to add some internal beauty for herself and the community - a small fictional town near Milan - Carla buys a run-down theatre in ruins she wants to renovate, and instead ends up falling into her familiar trap of meaningless seduction. A trenchant scene depicts a meeting of the newly formed theatre board and Virzì has great fun savoring the characters' whopping fixations while they discuss a possible repertoire. Anybody who has ever been to a board meeting will recognise someone here.<br /><br />Roberta, on the other hand, a psychologist working at the public clinic, decides to be completely ignorant about the crumbling world of her family, especially the dealings of husband Dino, who wants to move up in the world.<br /><br />Virzì, who told at the Tribeca Film Festival that Human Capital was the first of the dozen films he made which did not classify as comedy, keeps a light touch with his heavy subject matter. The different perspectives are woven into a rich tapestry of the present world. Greed and unconsidered, reckless desires are by no means an Italian phenomenon.<br /><br />Three perspectives, given one chapter each, illuminate disasters far greater and perhaps much smaller than the accident at hand and tell us about the nature of human capital. How much is a person worth? The script is based on a novel by American author Stephen Amidon which is set in Connecticut. The film takes place in a fictional town near Milan and was shot in Como and surroundings.<br /><br />Paolo Virzì's study of capitalism in crisis gives the audience all it covets. Voyeurism is taken care of as we peek into the hearts and home of the stylish wealthy. Their life is actually hellish, we discover to our great relief. It is crumbling and causing the literal and metaphorical quakes we all feel. A class lower, the annoying guy with the garish orange watch and the "creative" facial hair and glasses is indeed a dope who doesn't communicate with his pregnant wife. Virzi confirms the worst.<br /><br />Human Capital is a tale of people trapped in the wheels of money, prestige and unfulfilled longings, disguised as a thriller. Some create the wheels, some spin them and others run in them.</div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-43552626887918416492014-10-04T14:03:00.000+05:302014-10-04T14:03:15.706+05:30Norte, the End of History (2013)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Norte, the End of History (2013)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HV79kwuIXic/VC-wAsY5weI/AAAAAAAACUo/rsooFFlOLE8/s1600/LUZ7H0.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HV79kwuIXic/VC-wAsY5weI/AAAAAAAACUo/rsooFFlOLE8/s1600/LUZ7H0.jpg" height="320" width="216" /></a></div>Director: Lav Diaz<br />Country: Philippines<br />Runtime:250min<br /><br />The lives of three people take a turn when one of them commits a crime.<br />Joaquin (Archie Alemania) is failing miserably at providing for his family when his money lender gets murdered. The crime is pinned on him. Misery and solitude would<br />transform him in prison.<br />Left to fend for the family, his wife Eliza (Angeli Bayani) pours all of her strength to battling with despair and eking out a living for their children.<br />The real perpetrator, Fabian (Sid Lucero), roams free. His disillusionment with his country—its history of revolutions marred by betrayal and crimes unpunished—drives him to the edge of sanity, of humanity.</div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-43592003383570249142014-09-24T19:50:00.002+05:302014-09-24T19:50:55.588+05:30Still the Water (2014) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Still the Water (2014)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qjsH82eny34/VCLS2wOB7WI/AAAAAAAACUQ/QLKaEy-Hg2I/s1600/MV5BOTc2NjE3NDk5MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMDY1NzU4MTE%40._V1_SY317_CR8%2C0%2C214%2C317_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-qjsH82eny34/VCLS2wOB7WI/AAAAAAAACUQ/QLKaEy-Hg2I/s1600/MV5BOTc2NjE3NDk5MF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwMDY1NzU4MTE%40._V1_SY317_CR8%2C0%2C214%2C317_AL_.jpg" /></a></div>Director: Naomi Kawase <br />Country: Japan<br />Runtime:121min<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />On the subtropical Japanese island of Amami, traditions about nature remain eternal. During the full-moon night of traditional dances in August, 16-year-old Kaito discovers a dead body floating in the sea. His girlfriend Kyoko will attempt to help him understand this mysterious discovery.<br />Together, Kaito and Kyoko will learn to become adults by experiencing the interwoven cycles of life, death and love. </div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-84031225763677960442014-09-19T13:15:00.001+05:302014-09-19T13:15:21.637+05:30To Kill a Beaver (2012)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">To Kill a Beaver (2012)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7I5WGaU8rTk/VBvejx2No5I/AAAAAAAACUA/k5hpvdc9Qw4/s1600/r8MB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7I5WGaU8rTk/VBvejx2No5I/AAAAAAAACUA/k5hpvdc9Qw4/s1600/r8MB.jpg" height="320" width="241" /></a></div><span class="userContent">Director: Jan Jakub Kolski<br /> Country: Poland <br /> Runtime:100min</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><span class="userContent">A man returns home after a long time. The house is in a bad shape, ruined with graffiti on walls, but it doesn't stop him from staying in. The man has an aim that requires complex preparations. The house has however already a new inhabitants that start to influence the man's performance and to mingle with silhouettes from the character's recent past, spent at the Central Asia border. Are the war prolonged tension and the man's shattered emotionality possible to overcome, so that he may really re-locate in a peaceful surroundings of his home-village? </span></div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-80499173397175815602014-09-17T13:43:00.001+05:302014-09-17T13:43:07.024+05:3036 (2012)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">36 (2012)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tiogUjEOlK0/VBlCKqo9R2I/AAAAAAAACTw/mAEcOKPAAT4/s1600/xokytc.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tiogUjEOlK0/VBlCKqo9R2I/AAAAAAAACTw/mAEcOKPAAT4/s1600/xokytc.jpg" height="320" width="226" /></a></div><span class="userContent">Director: Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit<br /> Country: Thailand <br /> Runtime:68min</span><br /><br /><span class="userContent">36 is the number of shots on an analogue roll of film. It’s also the number of shots in this film. Yet it’s not a strict film, but the playful quest of a young photographer for the photos that disappeared on her computer: a whole year’s worth, including one of a challenging encounter.<br /><br />The title 36 refers to the roll of film in the filmmaker’s old-fashioned analogue still camera. Each roll had 36 photos and it was always a surprise to find out after it had been developed what was on the negatives. Often the photos didn’t have much to do with each other, and often he didn’t know when and why he had taken a picture.<br /><br />Nawapol Thamrongrattanarit also uses the number 36 to divide up his original, crisply-told film, which is made up of 36 shots. The filmmaker wanted to evoke something of the arbitrary nature of the old film rolls – and of memory – even though the story is told in a way that can be followed easily.<br /><br />The protagonist in this lightfooted and melancholy feature is Sai. She is a location scout and for her work she records a lot with her camera. One day it turns out that the hard disk of her laptop has crashed and she has lost a year’s worth of photos. She has the feeling that part of her own memory has been deleted and she does everything possible to get the photos back.<br /><br />In a playful way, this film tackles the issue of changing memory. These days a lot is remembered for us, but what do we still remember ourselves? Deeply hidden in the broken hard disk is also the picture of a possible lover. A persevering quest for lost digital time. –IFFR </span></div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-59678888073561984952014-09-16T15:50:00.001+05:302014-09-16T15:50:30.076+05:30Life of Riley (2014) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Life of Riley (2014)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7RHsjxC3cRY/VBgOQpiIOBI/AAAAAAAACTg/CgrfhKUABsw/s1600/1iVgQY.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7RHsjxC3cRY/VBgOQpiIOBI/AAAAAAAACTg/CgrfhKUABsw/s1600/1iVgQY.jpg" height="320" width="235" /></a></div>Director: Alain Resnais<br />Country: France<br />Runtime:108min<br /><br />In the midst of rehearsals for a new play, amateur dramatics proponents Colin and Kathryn receive the shattering news that their friend George is fatally ill and only has a few months to live. Life begins to come apart at the seams – not just for Kathryn, who was once George’s partner, but also for her friends Tamara and Monica. The full force of the emotional turmoil they experienced in their youth and their long-buried dreams are rekindled. Much to the chagrin of their respectable, middle-class husbands, the women begin to argue about which of them should be allowed to accompany George on a final journey …<br />After Smoking/No Smoking (1993) and Coeurs (2006), this current work marks the third time French cinema doyen Alain Resnais has chosen to adapt a stage play by British playwright Alan Ayckbourn. By confining the action to an artificial, almost entirely studio-bound world, he succeeds in creating a tragicomic theatre of vanities. Employing the ironic distance of a sage observer of human nature, Resnais ponders the power of love and desire and in doing so enables his characters, driven by their longings, hopes and obsessions, to leave the beaten track for once.<br />--Berlin Film Festival</div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-76459492575479274752014-09-10T19:30:00.000+05:302014-09-10T19:30:01.618+05:30The Dance of Reality (2013)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">The Dance of Reality (2013)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XjUKrNlIAHk/VBBYxrmwM6I/AAAAAAAACTM/_kBF2nR4ahI/s1600/JU4G.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-XjUKrNlIAHk/VBBYxrmwM6I/AAAAAAAACTM/_kBF2nR4ahI/s1600/JU4G.jpg" height="320" width="235" /></a></div><span class="userContent">Director: Alejandro Jodorowsky <br /> Country: Chile<br /> Runtime:130min</span><br /><br /><span class="userContent">Young Alejandro (Jeremías Herskovits) lives with his parents Jaime (Brontis Jodorowsky) and Sara (Pamela Flores) in Chile. Jaime is a communist who worships Stalin. He plans to assassinate the right-wing president Carlos Ibanez (Bastian Bodenhofer). Jaime becomes the president's groom. <br /><br />"Alejandro Jodorowsky's autobiographical The Dance of Reality is his first film after a layoff of more than two decades. His main character is himself, who, as a young man, interacts with a number of unusual people, and those interactions combined with his own exploration of art and life lead to a personal philosophy and an artistic vision that would produce such enduring works as El Topo and The Holy Mountain." All Movie Guide<br /><br />"The film blends Jodorowsky’s personal history with metaphor, mythology and poetry, reflecting the director’s view that reality is not objective but rather a “dance” created by our imaginations: “The story of my life is a constant effort to expand the imagination and its limitations, to capture its therapeutic and transformative potential... An active imagination is the key to such a wide vision: it looks at life from angles that are not our own, imagining other levels of consciousness superior to our own.” </span></div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-52510313516282825972014-09-10T10:19:00.001+05:302014-09-10T10:19:16.070+05:30Cremation of an Ideology (2011) <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">Cremation of an Ideology (2011)<br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CXqQ52GmOrM/VA_Xn7R3A1I/AAAAAAAACS8/zj9Kc42gr98/s1600/Cremation-of-an-Ideology-716x1024.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CXqQ52GmOrM/VA_Xn7R3A1I/AAAAAAAACS8/zj9Kc42gr98/s1600/Cremation-of-an-Ideology-716x1024.jpg" height="320" width="223" /></a></div>Director: Rouzbeh Rashidi <br />Country: Ireland | Iran<br />Runtime:62 min<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The enclosed, private space a man occupies is penetrated only by images brought from across distances by the internet. Space, distance and memory collapse in this haunting meditation on absence and virtual presence in the 21st century.</div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2045672840603577023.post-57073327962509927172014-09-08T12:15:00.000+05:302014-09-08T12:15:03.644+05:30When I Saw You (2012)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">When I Saw You (2012)<br /><span class="userContent">Director: Annemarie Jacir</span><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cCR2iHmAjJU/VA1Pg9NtdEI/AAAAAAAACSs/R9GH--y0V3E/s1600/MV5BMTg1NjQ4NzYyNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTA4NTgyMjE%40._V1_SY317_CR5%2C0%2C214%2C317_AL_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-cCR2iHmAjJU/VA1Pg9NtdEI/AAAAAAAACSs/R9GH--y0V3E/s1600/MV5BMTg1NjQ4NzYyNF5BMl5BanBnXkFtZTgwOTA4NTgyMjE%40._V1_SY317_CR5%2C0%2C214%2C317_AL_.jpg" /></a></div><span class="userContent">Country: Palestine<br /> Runtime:98 min</span><br /><br /><br /><span class="userContent">&nbsp;</span>The follow up to Annemarie Jacir's award-winning feature debut <i>Salt of the Sea</i>, <i>When I Saw You</i> tells the tale of a young Palestinian boy and his mother as they struggle to maintain their dignity after being displaced from their West Bank by the Israeli army in 1967. Defeated by the Israelis for the second time in their quest to liberate Palestine, numerous Palestinians and their families join refugees from the 1948 conflict in refugee camps located in nearby Arab countries. 11-year-old Tarek (Mahmoud Asfa) and his mother Ghaydaa (Ruba Blal) are just two of the thousands who were displaced when the Israeli army seized control of the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Desperate, they seek shelter at the Harir Camp in Jordan while anxiously awaiting the return of Tarik's father, Ghassan. Later, when Ghassan fails to appear, Tarik grows emboldened by his encounter with a band of heavily-armed Palestinian freedom fighters, and decides to join their ranks.</div>O.AJAYKUMARhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11449540282285850453noreply@blogger.com0